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Social Movements (from 1945)

Code: 106202 ECTS Credits: 6
2025/2026
Degree Type Year
Contemporary History, Politics and Economics OB 2

Contact

Name:
Roc Solà González
Email:
roc.sola@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

No prerequisites have been stablished for this subject. 


Objectives and Contextualisation

The course aims to provide students with appropriate tools and resources to enable them to acquire specialized knowledge about contemporary social movements. Within this framework, the main interpretative debates on the phenomenon of the emergence of social movements will be addressed from a multidisciplinary perspective, but mainly focusing on historical interpretations. At the same time, the main characteristics, emergence and mutations of the various social movements, especially the workers', peasants', gender, student and neighborhood movements, will be examined.


Competences

  • Distinguish between and analyse the type of relations that have been established over the last century among the different social, political and economic agents on national, regional and international frameworks.
  • Explain and summarise knowledge acquired in English language at an advanced level.
  • Identify the role in the present of the different social memories referring to conflictive pasts, differentiating between the concepts of history and memory.
  • Recognise the basic foundations of economic analysis from both a microeconomic and macroeconomic perspective.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  • Work cooperatively in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams implementing new projects.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Appropriately identifying and using information sources for the historical research, specially about contemporary political regimes.
  2. Assess work-related policies.
  3. Communicating in your mother tongue or other language both in oral and written form by using specific terminology and techniques of Historiography.
  4. Deal sensitively with social questions
  5. Developing the ability of historical analysis and synthesis.
  6. Engaging in debates about historical facts respecting the other participants' opinions.
  7. Identifying the main and secondary ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
  8. Identifying the social, economic and political structures of the contemporary world.
  9. Interpret the motivations, instruments and effects of public intervention in the labour market.
  10. Make a brief comparison of national and/or regional cases within the same international framework.
  11. Manage and apply data to solve problems.
  12. Organising and planning the search of historical information.
  13. Present works in formats tailored to the needs and personal styles, both individual and small group.
  14. Properly using the specific vocabulary of History.
  15. Recognising diversity and multiculturalism.
  16. Recognising the historical processes that led to the contemporary society.
  17. Relating elements and factors involved in the development of historical processes.
  18. Solving problems autonomously.
  19. Understand and explain situations of memory in conflict from the perspectives of class, gender and national identity.
  20. Understand the different perspectives of class, gender and national identity on which different relations between social, political and economic agents are based.
  21. Using computing resources of the area of study of history.
  22. Using the specific work methods of Contemporary History.
  23. Work in teams respecting all points of view. Use the specific vocabulary of history correctly.

Content

  1. The origins of social movements
  2. Labor movements: class struggle, social class and class consciousness 
  3. Peasant movement: from land ownership struggles to being able to live off the land
  4. Women’s movements, feminism and the role of women in social movements
  5. New social movements: the case of the students 
  6. Struggles against racial exclusion: the civil right movement
  7. Post-material movements? Pacifism, environmentalism and the neighborhood movement
  8. The key to the issue: social movements and political change
  9. Struggles against gentrification, touristification and housing: tenants' unions and urban property reform

Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Guided learning exercises 3 0.12 3, 5, 1, 7, 12, 6, 13, 15, 17, 4, 14, 22, 21
Seminars and guided practices 3 0.12 18, 2, 10, 19, 20, 3, 5, 11, 1, 8, 7, 9, 12, 6, 16, 17, 4, 14, 22, 21
Theoretical lectures 40 1.6 18, 2, 10, 19, 20, 8, 9, 12, 6, 16, 15, 17, 4, 23, 14, 21
Type: Supervised      
Tutor sessions 15 0.6 19, 3, 8, 7, 12, 6, 13, 16, 17, 14
Type: Autonomous      
Personal study 47 1.88 18, 2, 19, 20, 5, 11, 1, 8, 12, 16, 15, 17, 4, 14, 22, 21
Reading texts and writing assignments 33 1.32 18, 2, 10, 19, 20, 3, 5, 11, 1, 8, 7, 9, 12, 6, 13, 16, 15, 17, 4, 23, 14, 22, 21

-       Theoretical lectures

-       Attendance to guided seminars and mentoring sessions

-       Learning of information search strategies

-       Debates and discussions

-       Writing reviews, papers and analytical comments

-       Oral presentations

-       Self-study

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Final theoretical exam 25% 1 0.04 2, 10, 19, 20, 5, 11, 8, 9, 16, 15, 17, 4, 14, 22
Mid-term theoretical exam 25% 1 0.04 2, 10, 19, 20, 5, 11, 8, 9, 16, 15, 17, 4, 14, 22
Research paper 30% 6 0.24 18, 2, 10, 19, 20, 3, 5, 11, 1, 8, 7, 9, 12, 6, 13, 16, 15, 17, 4, 23, 14, 22, 21
Written commentaries 20% 1 0.04 2, 5, 1, 7, 12, 6, 14, 22

Assessment

The evaluation is continuous. Students must demonstrate their progress by completing activities and exams. The deadlines for these evaluation activities will be indicated in the calendar on the first day of class. All activities will have a deadline that must be strictly adhered to, according to the subject calendar. On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place. It is necessary to have obtained a minimum of 3.5 in each of the assessment tests in order to obtain a weighted average and make up for the failed tests. The weighting of the different evaluation elements will be as follows:

-       Mid-term theoretical exam (25%)

-       Final theoretical exam (25%)

-       Research paper (30%)

-       Written commentaries (20%)

 

Single assessement

Single assessment assumes a single assessment date but not a single assessment activity. The students who take advantage of the single evaluation must carry out the following tasks:

- Theoretical exam of the contents of the whole subject (50%)

- Research work (30%)

- Written comment (20%)

Students can apply for the Single Evaluation through a form between September 18 and October 6. The students can continue to attend class even if they adhere to the single assessment.

 

 

Related matters 

The information about the evaluation, the type of evaluation activity and its weight on the subject is for information purposes only. The faculty responsible for the course will specify it at the beginning of the course.

 

Assessment activities review 

When publishing final marks, the professor will provide written notification of a date and time for reviewing assessment activities. Students must arrange reviews in agreement with the professor.

 

Retake

Those students who have submitted activities whose weight is equivalent to two thirds or more of the final grade and who have obtained a weighted grade of 3.5 or more will have access to the recovery. Students will obtain a ‘Not assessed/Not submitted’ course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items.

 

At the time of giving the final grade prior to the final grade of the course, the teacher will communicate in writing the recovery procedure.

 

Consideration of “not assessed”

Students will obtain a ‘Not assessed/Not submitted’ course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of theassessment items.

 

Irregularities in the evaluation activities 

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.

 

In case of irregularity (plagiarism, copying, impersonation, etc.) in an evaluation activity, the grade of this evaluation activity will be 0. In case of irregularities in several evaluation activities, the final grade of the course will be 0. 

 

Evaluation activities in which irregularities have occurred (such as plagiarism, copying, impersonation) are excluded from the recovery. It is considered as ‘copy’ a work that reproduces all or most of the work of another student, and as "plagiarism" the fact of presenting part or all of an author's text as one's own, that is, without citing the sources, whether published on paper or in digital form. In the case of copying between two students, if it is not possible to know who has copied whom, the sanction will be applied to both.

 

More information: http://www.uab.cat/web/study-abroad/undergraduate/academic-information/evaluation/what-is-it-about-1345670077352.html

 

 


Bibliography

In each unit, the professor will indicate the specific references on the topic addressed. This merely is a bibliographical selection of the main issues to be dealt with in the subject. 

 

BLOOM, Joshua, MARTIN JR., Waldo E. (2016), Black against Empire, Oakland: University of California Press.

ELEY, Geoff (2001), Forging Democracy. The History of the Left in Europe, 1850-2000, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

HARVEY, David (2019), Rebel Cities. From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution, London: Verso.

HESS, Beth; FERREE, Myra Marx (2000), Controversy and Coalition. The new feminist movement across three decades of change, Routledge.

HORN, Gerd-Rainer (2007), The Spirit of ’68. Rebellion in Western Europe and North America, 1956-1976, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

LAWSON, Steven F. (2015), Running for Freedom. Civil Rights and Black Politics in America since 1941, Hoboken: Wiley.

NASH, Mary (2012), Mujeres en el mundo. Historia, retos y movimientos, Madrid: Alianza [2nd ed.].

NELSON, Jennifer (2003), Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement, New York: New York University Press.

SASSONN, Donald (2010), One Hundred Years of Socialism. The West European Left in the Twentieth Century, Bloomsbury Publishing. 

SHANIN, Teodor, ed. (1987), Peasants and Peasant Societies. Blackwell Publishers.

STRAIN, Christopher B. (2005), Pure Fire. Self-Defense as Activism in the Civil Rights Era, Athens / London: University of Georgia Press.

TARROW, Sidney (2011), Power in Movement. Social movements and contentious politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

THOMPSON, Edward P. (1991), Customs in Common. Studies in Traditional Popular Culture, London: Merlin Press [Several reeditions]. 

THOMPSON, E.P. (1991), Zero Option, London: The Merlin Press.

TILLY, Charles (2004), Social movements, 1768-2004, London: Paradigm.

TODD, Selina (2014), The People. The Rise and Fall of the Working Class, London: John Murray.


Software

It is not required


Groups and Languages

Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 50 English second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 50 English second semester afternoon